Bloomberg’s Re-Org – Being both Global and Local

In essence, Bloomberg will follow what seems like the paradoxical imperatives for any media company, especially those that aren’t flush with venture capital cash: become more niche but also more global; and get leaner while also spreading to as many platforms as possible.

Being more niche means being more local – able to get to the root of a story in one of Bloomberg’s core areas no matter where that is found. Being more global means giving stories to the broadest possible exposure.

That means developing connections that are outside of their usual sources. Bloomber’s editor in chief writes

“Bloomberg is still too focused on developed markets, established finance and the Western world (especially America),” he writes. “By contrast capitalism is moving to private markets and the emerging world. To chronicle it, we must follow it. Such international expansion is something other media and content companies, from BuzzFeed to Netflix, are looking to do, too.

And here is the challenge

But of course, for news, heading overseas doesn’t just mean a website in a new language. It means reporters on the ground who understand the places they’re covering. Ultimately, the challenge for any news organization in the Internet age is that journalism doesn’t scale the way a purely digital product does. Code can travel the world with a click; but news, at least for now, still needs people.

Good point. Journalism doesn’t scale the way digital products do. It is a people based business. Let’s see how this plays out.